Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
� Specific peripheral drives: You can share PC-connected or networkenabled
peripheral drives, such as an extra USB-attached hard drive,
a Zip or Jaz backup drive, or an external CD/DVD read/write drive.
� Files: You can set up particular folders or just a specific file to share
across your network. Note: File storage schemes on devices are hierarchical:
If you share a folder, all files and folders within that folder will be
shared. If you want to share only one file, share a folder with only the
one file in it (but if you add an additional file to that folder, it too will
be shared).
Enabling sharing on Windows XP
In Windows XP, sharing is enabled by default on each network connection on
your machine. When Microsoft released Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, they
still allowed sharing to be enabled, but they also enabled Windows Firewall
to not allow any connections for file and printer sharing. If you have a wired
network card and a wireless card, you can have sharing enabled on one card
and not on the other. This is helpful if you only want to share files on one of
the networks you connect to. For example, if you want to share files when
connected to your wireless home network and turn off sharing when you plug
your laptop in at work, turn sharing on for your wireless card and off for your
wired Ethernet card. When you first install a new network card, or wireless
network card for our purposes, the default is to have sharing turned on.
You can never be too protected
The number of ways that someone can get on
your network multiplies with each new technology
you add to your network. We note in
Chapter 9 that wireless local area networks
(LANs) seep out of your home and make it easy
for others to log in and sniff around. If someone
does manage to break into your network, the
most obvious places to snoop around and do
damage are the shared resources. Sharing your
C: drive (which is usually your main hard drive),
your Windows directory, or your My Documents
directory makes it easier for people to get into
your machine and do something you would
rather they not.
You see, sharing broadcasts to the rest of the
network the fact that something is shared,
telling everyone who has access your computer’s
name on the network and how to find it.
Sharing can broadcast that availability across
firewalls, proxies, and servers. Certain types of
viruses and less-than-friendly hackers look for
these specific areas (such as your shared C:
drive) in broadcast messages and follow them
back to your machine.
If you’re going to share these parts of your
system on your network, run a personal firewall
or the Windows Firewall on your machines for an
added layer of security. Get virus software.
Protect your machine, and limit your exposure.
(And, by all means, be sure to follow our advice
in Chapter 9 for securing your wireless network.)